Green Shadows
by Rivergem
Summary: They were there, sitting right next to each other. It was strange to see them together; it made her question things, it made her question herself…
1. Sam

Title: Green Shadows

Author: Rivergem

Rating: U

Archive: Let me know where.

Disclaimer: They're not mine so: sue me not 'cos you won't get squat. You know maybe I should be poetry instead of prose...

Hello again. Long time no write I know. Sorry, what with revision and going to Wales I haven't really had time but I've written this one-off fic to try to cure my writers block (there are no kit-kats in the house at the moment so I've had to resort to other methods). The last chapter of 'I Heard You' is in the works and is coming to a computer near you soon. As always only review if you feel like it because, to be honest, I'm not that arsed if I get reviews or not. I write only because I love to. Saying that I'm not going to complain if you do decide to review as constructive criticism is welcomed. Well, enough of me and on to the story, ficlet or whatever you want to call it…

They were there, sitting right next to each other. It was strange to see them together; it made her question things, it made her question herself…

            Pete was listening to Daniel, who was making strained conversation about his expedition to Gaza. Pete was sat on the edge of his chair, arms resting on knees, leaning forward towards him. He had a slightly glazed expression on his face and he stared at a point just above Daniel's right ear, clearly not hearing a word that was being said. Sam, used to her best friend's mannerisms, could tell by Daniel's occasional glances towards his teammates that he was getting annoyed at this lack of concentration. SG1, and more specifically O'Neill, frequently ignored his ramblings about one ancient civilisation or the other but at least they didn't insult his intelligence by pretending to be interested.

            But, Pete, oblivious to Daniel's irritation, gazed on. His hair was auburn in the afternoon sunlight and was in stark contrast to the Colonel's dark grey on one side and Daniel's muddy brown on the other. He was quite handsome she supposed, not classically good-looking but attractive all the same. She didn't choose guys (the few that there had been) based solely on their looks, instead preferring men with a good personality and sense of humour. The looks were a bonus, she thought bemusedly.

            Daniel stopped speaking in order to take a sip of his beer and Pete, sensing a gap in the conversation, began to talk. Sam listened idly; he was describing his recent trip to Mexico. She watched as he spoke. His eyes, previously reduced to green slits by the glare of the sun, now widened and he gestured enthusiastically at Daniel who listened politely.

            Could she imagine herself ending up with Pete? She could, but then she could imagine a lot. Pete was the almost certainly the best boyfriend she had ever had. That could mean one of two things; either she didn't have much to compare him with or he was 'the one'. Although she desperately wanted it to be the latter, the little voice at the back of her mind that sounded strangely like Daniel told her that it was probably the former.

She sighed. Pete was… Well, he was sweet, kind and had a knack for choosing places to go for their dates. She had only ever seen him angry once and that was when she wouldn't tell him about the SGC. But that was all over now and ever since then he had been a fantastic boyfriend. Even so there something missing, something she couldn't quite put into words. Maybe words didn't exist to describe it. Or maybe she was being stupid, picking away at every shadow of emotion.

 He had always said she thought too much.

             Colonel O'Neill was sitting in the chair opposite her. He was bent over the table, long fingers drawing patterns in the ring of condensation on the table that had been left behind by his beer. He seemed to be deep in thought. He ran a hand through his greying hair, making it stick up in all directions and started to play with the label of his already-emptied beer bottle. Sam smiled. It was amazing how someone who had the attention span of a six year old whilst sitting in a street-side café on a bright summer's afternoon could stay perfectly still for hours at night whilst on watch off-world.

            O'Neill suddenly pushed back his chair, making Teal'c twist around sharply in his chair to look at him. He raised his eyebrows at him then picked up the bottle from the table and held it up to the sun. He took his sunglasses off with one hand and put them down on the table with a loud click that made Pete turn around. The light through the glass cast a green shadow across his face.

            There was a moment of silence. Then O'Neill noticed that Daniel and Pete had stopped talking and were stare He wearily put the bottle down and gave them both a Look. Sam could almost hear him saying 'What?' in an all too familiar pained voice. Daniel smirked and Teal'c raised an eyebrow, apparently they were thinking along the same lines.

            Pete, however, could not find the humour in the situation; he glared at O'Neill who was once again investigating the effect of light shining through a beer bottle and then loudly resumed his conversation with Daniel.

            As the shadow fell across his chocolate-coloured eyes, Sam thought about the times when O'Neill scared her. He was a soldier, a trained killer, that was his job and he was good at it. Throughout his military career and as the leader of SG1 he had had to make difficult decisions and some of them haunted him. Sam knew this; tent canvas didn't block out the sound of someone having a nightmare. But she also knew that, if put in his place, for each choice he made, she would have chosen the same.

            Despite his flaws he was a good person and he had demonstrated on many occasions that, if necessary, he would die for his team…

             Gradually she got the feeling she was being watched and she snapped out of her reverie. O'Neill, his head tilted to one side, was looking at her questioningly. Blushing slightly, she realised that she had been staring at him the whole time. She half opened her mouth to say something but no sound came out. It was not often that Major Samantha Carter was at a loss for words but ever since she had joined SG1 she found it happened more and more frequently and that the cause of her speechlessness was, for various reasons, usually the Colonel.

            O'Neill, recognising the irony in her predicament, grinned at her and she grinned back. Then the grins faded and their eyes locked. The sounds around them; the dim rumble of traffic a street away, Daniel's and Pete's laboured exchange about the shortcomings of public transport in Mexico City and the occasional slurp of Teal'c's straw in the almost-empty milkshake glass, grew fainter. Time seemed to stop and Sam was conscious of nothing except him.

            "O'Neill." The deep voice of Teal'c shattered the moment and she hastily looked down, intensely interested in the grain of the wooden table. "I believe it is time for us to depart for the hockey fixture." Teal'c stood up.

            O'Neill flicked back the cover on his watch. "So it is." He too got up, closely followed by Daniel who looked slightly relieved. "You sure you don't wanna come Carter?" He asked Sam.

            "Sorry, we've got plans." Said Pete pointedly, moving closer to her.

            "Nice to meet you." Said Daniel politely to him.

            "Indeed." Teal'c bowed his head.

            "Yeah." Said O'Neill. "Well we'll see ya tomorrow then Carter." With that they walked off, leaving Sam feeling oddly alone. Pete took her hand.

            "So that was your team then? You work with those three every day? They've saved the world?" He said mildly. In the middle distance she could see him, one arm resting on Daniel's shoulder and the other gesturing wildly in front of him, obviously explaining the tactics of hockey to Teal'c, who she could see, even from so far away, was looking faintly alarmed.

            "Yes." She said, breaking away from him to pick up her beer bottle. And as Sam drank, she saw the green shadow that played across the fingers of her left hand and she thought.


	2. Teal'c

Hiya. I've decided to write a few more chapters to this supposed one-off as a few of you suggested. However I'm not going to continue the story now, rather write the same scene from different points of view (I'm saving the continuation until right at the end. You know, just to keep you suspended. Lol.) So next up… Teal'c. Gotta love that big guy. Thanks to everyone that reviewed.

Teal'c pulled down his hat and sipped his milkshake cautiously. He had been recommended it by O'Neill and while he would trust his fellow warrior with his life on the battlefield, Teal'c was not sure that his taste in beverages matched his own. However he was relieved to find that he actually quite liked it and nodded his appreciation to O'Neill who was sitting next to him.

But O'Neill was not looking at him; instead he was glancing, eyes just visible through his sunglasses, from Major Carter to her boyfriend, only this morning to whom Teal'c had been politely introduced as 'Pete', and back again. Frowning slightly Teal'c followed his gaze towards Major Carter who was staring fixedly at Pete with a complicated expression on her face.

Teal'c had been watching Pete for most of the afternoon, trying to weigh up what sort of person he was. He was fiercely protective of Major Carter, indeed he was of all of his team, and was concerned about her decision to 'go out' as he believed the Tauri called it, with this man. While seeming to be perfectly courteous and amiable at first, Teal'c had noticed that Pete did not meet his eyes the few times he had talked to him. On Chu'lac a Jaffa was considered to be weak of will or devious if he or she did not look a speaker in the eye. Teal'c was aware that on Earth the Tauri did not follow the customs of Chu'lac but his old habits remained and he could not decide if he liked Pete or not.

The man in question was currently talking to Daniel Jackson about a place he had heard O'Neill mention occasionally, normally in relation to food; Mexico. Pete had, perhaps sensing a chance to show off his travelling experience to the people present, immediately began to speak as soon as Daniel Jackson as stopped, although, as Teal'c kept telling himself, he mustn't keep seeing the worst in him. Perhaps O'Neill's mood was contagious.

As if physically attempting to see Pete in a better light, Teal'c tilted his head slightly. At least he was fairly certain that Pete would treat Major Carter with the respect that she deserved. Teal'c could tell that he liked her very much as he always stayed very close to her; only grudgingly sitting opposite her at the café table because Daniel automatically sat beside to her, as was usual at briefings.

Teal'c could practically feel the jealousy radiating off him in regards to the relationships between Major Carter and the rest of SG1. What Pete could not seem to understand was that SG1 was a family. He kept shooting strangely apprehensive glances at them, in particular O'Neill, as if they were in some way intruding upon him and Major Carter. Perhaps it was because the rest of the team were male. Or possibly because he felt intimidated by them. Whatever the reason, Teal'c could tell Pete was uneasy around Major Carter's teammates.

Teal'c then focused on the main source of Pete's disquiet; O'Neill. He was watching Major Carter, his face a mask, not a glimpse of his inner emotions showing through his unreadable exterior. To Teal'c this revealed more about what him was feeling than a facial expression ever could. O'Neill seemed to sigh inwardly and started to draw in the sheen of condensation on the table, left there by his beer bottle.

There was a slight break in the conversation and Major Carter blinked slowly and her eyes shifted to the right to rest upon O'Neill, whose tall frame was still bowed over the table, apparently deep in thought.

Taking another sip of his milkshake Teal'c sat back and watched what Daniel Jackson liked to call a 'Jack O'Neill moment' unravel. Oblivious to his subordinate officer's gaze, he picked up the beer bottle and studied it carefully. It was like observing Major Carter in her lab or Daniel Jackson in some long abandoned ruins; he had the same sense of child-like fascination. Smiling faintly Teal'c turned back to look at the busy street to in front of him.

Suddenly Teal'c heard the loud snap of plastic on plastic and, twisting around in his seat to look, found that the source of the noise had been O'Neill putting his sunglasses clumsily down on the cheap café table. He then slowly raised the bottle up to the sunlight so it shone through the glass, a green shadow across his face.

Raising a customary eyebrow, Teal'c glanced bemusedly at the rest of his teammates. Daniel Jackson was plainly trying not to laugh and, after seeing Pete's expression, Teal'c knew why. Pete was glaring at fiercely at O'Neill who was quite oblivious to anyone or anything except the beer bottle. Or at least that was how it seemed, for Teal'c was almost certain that O'Neill was perfectly aware of Pete's anger and, for whatever reason, was doing nothing about it.

Major Carter was also smiling but so indistinctly that Teal'c doubted that anyone but himself, O'Neill or Daniel would notice. As Pete and Daniel's conversation finally resumed, she didn't move, her gaze remaining on O'Neill.

Teal'c felt strangely separate from the rest of the people at the table; O'Neill and Major Carter seemed to create a sort of bubble of understanding around them, as if they shared a secret joke that no one else knew the meaning of. He watched as O'Neill realised he had an observer and grinned lopsidedly at her. She smiled back. Then they just stared at each other, the moment frozen in time.

Teal'c knew that O'Neill and Carter had a bond that was different from that of say Daniel and Teal'c. It was never mentioned except in very extreme circumstances, and by SG1's standards extreme could mean even beyond death, but somehow people knew. O'Neill's and Major Carter's feelings for each other used to be an unspoken constant apparent to everyone but the two people involved. However recently, although those feelings were still there, the previously evitable outcome did not seem so evitable to most people anymore. Pete was the physical manifestation of that.

But Teal'c was an observant person. He knew better than most people.

"O'Neill." Deciding that O'Neill and Major Carter's exchange had gone on too long, Teal'c interrupted them. "I believe it is time for the hockey fixture." Acting as if nothing had happened, they looked suddenly away and O'Neill turned to Teal'c.

"So it is." He and Daniel Jackson got up. "You sure you don't want to come with us Carter?" He asked her casually.

"Sorry we've got plans." Said Pete, answering for her and moving closer possessively.

"Nice to have met you." Said Daniel Jackson courteously.

"Indeed." Said Teal'c neither disagreeing nor agreeing.

"Yeah." O'Neill said dismissively. ""Well we'll see ya tomorrow then Carter." Then they walked off and as Teal'c glanced over his shoulder he could see that Major Carter looked strangely small.

Immediately O'Neill launched into a tirade about the Tauri sport known as hockey, waving wildly at him. Teal'c recognised this as an excuse for distraction but was still slightly disturbed by the enthusiasm that the people of Earth reserved for talking about sports.

As Teal'c stared at the ground, trying to block out comments such as "You should really try ice-hockey T, you've got the build for it." He noticed the dappled green shadows on the ground cast by the trees overhead and was reminded forcibly of why two of his best friends had a big decision to make.


	3. Daniel

            At first Daniel had been overjoyed to find someone new to talk with. He loved his teammates but he couldn't really tell them about the numerous trips and excavations he had made before he had joined the SGC. Sam was the most receptive of the three but she was more interested in her science, Teal'c was a good listener but his knowledge of Earth cultures was extremely limited and as for Jack, well, Daniel knew him well enough to not even try. Pete, on the other hand, seemed genuinely fascinated by what he had to say.

            So while the rest of SG1 sat in a comfortable silence, he and Daniel had talked and talked. However, even as Daniel spoke, he could see Pete's attention drifting away with the cool breeze. He no longer looked at Daniel but rather behind him and his eyes began to glaze over. Daniel narrowed his eyes and glanced once or twice at Sam who smiled slightly in return. Putting his mouth on autopilot, he thought about Sam's new boyfriend.

            He seemed to be a nice guy, he was intelligent, good-looking and although he had a weak sense of humour (maybe Daniel had been around Jack for too long), he was fun to talk to. He obviously liked Sam very much; all through the morning he had hardly left her side, taking hold of her hand then almost glaring at them as if daring one of them to object.

            He was… nice. But Daniel wasn't quite sure if he trusted him. There was something that made him think twice about him, like a single wrong note in a melody. Some people, like Jack, Sam or Teal'c for instance were clear-cut, they had strong values and while they were not predictable, Daniel could depend on them. Pete was somehow fuzzy around the edges; he was, in an indistinct way, volatile.

Of course Daniel would never force the subject of Pete's suitability as a boyfriend upon Sam, he respected her judgement too much to do that. But all the same he was quietly apprehensive about Pete; he didn't want to see the woman he loved like a sister get hurt.

Daniel paused to take a sip of his beer and Pete, perhaps trying to make up for his previous daydreaming, started to speak. Daniel listened intently and watched Pete as he talked.

He spoke with enthusiasm but with a degree of uneasiness; although he gestured eagerly he was leant forwards, his elbows resting on his knees, protecting his abdomen. Daniel had spent enough time in the company of primitive peoples and even aliens to recognise what this meant. He, Teal'c and Jack, intimidated Pete. Daniel was slightly taken aback by this; he didn't think that the males of SG1 were particularly intimidating. Well, maybe Teal'c but then everyone found him somewhat threatening at one time or the other.

Daniel adjusted his glasses thoughtfully. Perhaps it was because of Sam, Pete knew that SG1 were family to Sam and he wanted to make a good impression. No, because if so why didn't he make the effort to listen to Daniel?

Daniel took another swig of beer and plonked the bottle back on the table irritably. Then is dawned on him; Pete was jealous. He couldn't understand the bonds between his girlfriend and her male teammates. Daniel was genuinely surprised; it had never occurred to him that someone would be jealous of that. He took it for granted that everyone knew and accepted it. General Hammond knew, Bra'tac knew, the Tok'ra knew, their enemies certainly knew, even Siler knew. In fact the whole of the SGC knew that the members of SG1 would willingly die for one another.

There was a loud scraping to Daniel's left that made him jump. Jack was leant back in his chair holding an empty beer bottle up into the bright sunlight. Pete, whose head had snapped around immediately towards the source of the noise, was glaring at him with alarming ferocity. The ridiculous image was in such contrast to Daniel's sober thoughts just a moment ago that he almost burst out laughing. Jack then slowly, mock-wearily lowered the bottle and gave Pete a look so familiar that Daniel could almost hear him saying 'What?' in a tone of voice that implied that the whole world minus Jack himself needed to loosen up and have a bit of fun sometimes. Daniel smirked at Sam who was grinning almost imperceptibly.

Pete began to talk again loudly but Daniel didn't turn around. He watched as Jack set his sunglasses down on the table with a click that made Teal'c twist in his chair and raise an eyebrow. Jack had gone back to examining the bottle, the light casting a wavering green shadow over his eyes.

Sighing Daniel resumed his conversation with Pete, the exchange getting more and more laboured. Occasionally Pete's eyes flickered to what Daniel had now realised as the source of most of Pete's unrest; Jack.

Jack had the uncanny ability to piss people off to the point of wanting to hit him at will and within an instant. Daniel knew, he had been on the receiving end of one of his 'lets annoy everyone I meet' moods many a time but he didn't think that Jack had done anything in particular to annoy Pete. Whilst untalkative and subdued all afternoon he had been civil and had talked to Pete politely once or twice.

Pete knew, Daniel realised, or at least he suspected. You only had to spend a while with them when they were together to guess.

"O'Neill." Teal'c said suddenly. "I believe it is time for us to depart for the hockey fixture." He neatly moved the chair back and stood up.

"So it is." Said Jack, checking the time. "You sure you don't wanna come Carter?" He said to Sam guardedly but with a flicker of hope in his voice.

Pete answered for her. "Sorry we've got plans." He moved into Daniel's vacated seat nearer to her.

"Nice to have met you." Daniel said quickly breaking the tension.

"Indeed."

"Yeah." Said Jack tonelessly. "We'll see ya tomorrow Carter." With one last look at the couple he turned and strode down the street. Daniel and Teal'c followed.

They were silent for a few moments but then Jack started to talk about hockey.  With his friend's arm resting on his shoulder, Daniel listened, glad for a distraction from the thoughts that were triggered in his mind by the play of green shadows below the coloured glass of a shop window.


	4. Jack

Thank you very much for all the reviews, I'm glad you enjoy reading my story. Gater101- I didn't originally plan the whole green=jealousy thing but as the story went on it kind of developed into that. Well done for noticing. Thank you very much to everyone else too.

I wasn't sure whether people were going to like this story, as not much happens until right at the end- in the last two chapters when we get to the two 'rivals'- Jack and Pete. I'm going to do Jack's POV first then Pete's. In Jack's I will just tell the same scene but from his point of view but in Pete's I will continue the plot after that scene and to a conclusion.

Glad you like! Review if you want, just read if you don't.

Rivergem.

Jack stretched out a finger and touched the condensation on the table. He began to move it round, drawing circles in the moisture. His mind was not where his body was; at a small street-side café bathed in afternoon sunlight, sitting with Carter, Daniel, T and Pete. His mind was eleven miles to the west, and almost one mile underground in a shadowy room lit only by the dim blue, and unfortunately red, light of an alien device. He sighed, paused his doodling and glanced around.

            Carter was staring at Pete. O'Neill hastily looked away again, feeling extremely intrusive. Instead he contented himself with studying his other teammates.

            Teal'c was also looking at Pete but his face was set and it was almost impossible to know what he was thinking. Almost. O'Neill had known Teal'c a long time and was used to his many different, but subtle, facial expressions and this one, O'Neill knew, was mistrust. He felt a strange rush of companionship towards the Jaffa.

O'Neill looked over to Daniel who was sitting next to Sam but facing Pete. He was in full archaeologist mode, currently babbling on about some trip or other, whatever it was he had probably told SG1 about it umpteen times. At least he had someone to talk Egypt with now. But, as O'Neill glanced casually at Pete, being careful to keep any emotion from showing, he could see that he was gazing, glassy eyed, at Daniel, obviously not paying the slightest bit of attention. O'Neill was amazed at how angry this made him.

Then he tried to rationalise; he, O'Neill, had ignored Daniel during his countless lectures about other civilisations in briefings, off-world and in general everyday conversation. How could he be angry with Pete for doing what he did every other day? He sighed again and glared at the table. O'Neill knew deep down that he was afraid to criticise Pete, he was afraid of being wrong, afraid of letting his feelings cloud his judgement, that by hating Pete he was being inexcusably selfish.

O'Neill was not stupid, he could see how Carter was looking at Pete and, as he leaned back in the flimsy plastic chair to get them both in view, he could see how Pete looked at her, his slight half-frown changing to a faint smile when his eyes met hers. They didn't even want to be here, he thought gloomily, they wanted to be alone, together, without Daniel's incessant talking, without Teal'c looking suspiciously at his milkshake in between glaring at Pete and without O'Neill.

He picked up his bottle and peeled off the label. His beer was Guinness, he noticed, like Daniel and Sam's (Teal'c of course didn't drink alcohol; he had once told a shocked O'Neill that he didn't like it). Pete, on the other hand, drank Budweiser.

He slowly raised the bottle off the table, so the sunlight shining through it made a green shadow dance on his hand. What did it remind him of?

O'Neill suddenly scraped back his chair and raised the bottle to the sky, staring at the green sun behind the glass. He tried to block out the dangerous thoughts that coursed though his mind. He slapped his sunglasses onto the table, misjudging the distance but not really caring, never taking his eyes off the bottle.

The future stretched off into the distance; Daniel would stay on at the SGC, probably ending up with Sarah, Teal'c would return home to his son, Sam would marry Pete and he would be lost once again.

Slowly, gradually, he felt people looking at him. He twisted around in his chair and met the narrowed eyes of Pete who was looking at him. All O'Neill's muscles tensed as he set the bottle down and turned towards him. As he looked at Pete, a tingle of surprise ran through him because what he saw in Pete's expression was not annoyance or embarrassment as he expected but a disturbing mixture of jealousy, hate and even fear. O'Neill was genuinely shocked; he didn't think he had done anything to rile him; he had been withdrawn yet polite all day. O'Neill inwardly panicked. What if…? But then it was gone and Pete simply glared at him. In his confusion, O'Neill responded with familiar sarcasm.

He gave Pete what he privately called a 'Daniel Look', so named because the primary receiver of the 'Look' was in fact Daniel. It consisted of raising the eyebrows, tilting the head slightly to the right and smirking faintly. O'Neill liked it because it was a sure-fire way to infuriate anyone but Danny, who had been given the 'Look' so many times over the course of the 9 years that they had known each other that he was practically immune to it. Pete, however, was not and as he frowned and turned his back, O'Neill felt a guilty sense of satisfaction.

            Not wanting to look at the others just in case they too were glaring at him, he went back to his bottle, moving it this way and that. He heard Pete turn away and begin to talk to Daniel again but he could still feel eyes on him. O'Neill set down the beer bottle carefully and shifted around to face Carter. She was gazing at him, wide-eyed and unblinking. His mind raced. But then his heartbeat slowed; she was probably thinking about Pete.

            After a few moments she snapped out of her trance frowning and he grinned at her. She grinned apologetically back at him and all of a sudden O'Neill felt a whole lot happier. Then the world seemed to fade into blue, the exact same shade, Jack mused, as Sam's eyes. And for one blissful second he forgot about Pete, he forgot that Charlie, Kawalski, Janet and countless other people he knew had died, he forgot about regulations and he forgot about all the bad things he had done. He was conscious of nothing but her.

            "O'Neill." Teal'c voice brought them crashing back to reality and Carter stared resolutely at the table. "I believe it is time for us to depart for the hockey fixture."

            O'Neill fiddled with his watch. "So it is." He stood up awkwardly. "You sure you don't wanna come Carter?" He said, keeping all emotion out of his voice.

            "Sorry, we've got plans." Said Pete before she could answer and anger surged up once again in O'Neill.

            "Nice to meet you." Said Daniel, always the diplomat.

            "Indeed." Teal'c inclined his head.

            "Yeah." The word hung in the air. "Well we'll see ya tomorrow then Carter." He said pointedly and then walked off with Teal'c and Daniel trailing behind him. As soon as they caught up Jack began to talk loudly about hockey, resting his arm on Daniel's shoulder as if for support and trying, unsuccessfully, to keep at bay thoughts that were triggered by the green shadows made by sunlight shining through the tinted windows of a nearby parked car.


End file.
